A career in research is not attractive to Germans, suggests a study conducted by the country’s Federal Statistical Office. A large proportion of graduates do not continue with research once they get the coveted “Promotion” (this “false friend” to anglophones is the German word for a doctoral degree).

Out of some half million people who held doctorates in 2011, the study revealed that just under 100,000 were still working in research at universities, scientific organisations or in industry, while more than 400,000 are employed outside research (although about half these are medical doctors, who constitute a somewhat different category).